>> well, you know, i just echo what everybody has said right up to president obama, that it's unacceptable for us to allow iran to become a nuclear state, that containment is not an acceptable alternative for all the reasons we know. i think that's absolutely right. it changes the whole balance of power in the middle east, it emboldens the terrorists like hamas and hezbollah that are agents of the iranian government. it probably, unless we're strong, leads some of our allies in the arab world to begin to accommodate to iran, and it's a threat to most of the rest of the world, including us. so, you know, the sanctions have been unprecedented, they're having an effect on the iranian economy -- so far not an observable effect on the iranian regime at all. and so i think we have to make sure that our threat of military action if they don't take down their nuclear weapons program is credible to them. i'm still not sure it is. but they've got to believe that the u.s. will use our immense power to disable their nuclear program if they don't do it themselves. >> senator kyl -- >> may i just interr